INTRODUCTION

The lost speech of Abraham Lincoln was delivered at the first Republican State Convention of Illinois, at Bloomington, on the 29th of May, 1856. The excitement caused among the audience by the speech was so great that the reporters forgot to take their notes, and for many years it was generally supposed that no record of the speech had been preserved. It appears, however, that Mr. H. C. Whitney, then a young lawyer of Illinois, did take notes of the speech, which he preserved; and after a lapse of forty years they were transcribed and were published in ‘Mc Clure’s Magazine’ for September, 1896, together with a letter from Mr. Joseph Medill, of the ‘Chicago Tribune, ‘ who was present at the Convention and confirms the accuracy of Mr. Whitney’s report.

By the kind consent of Mr. Whitney, and through the courtesy of Mr. S. S. Mc Clure, the speech is now reproduced by the Republican Club of the City of New York as a souvenir of Lincoln for its Annual Dinner on the 12th of February, 1897.